09/02/2017
Are you satisfied with what God has done in you? When you look in the mirror in the morning are you pleased and at ease with the fact that Jesus has filled you with His teaching and that the Holy Spirit has expanded you to the point of popping at the seams? All of this is wonderful, but what is really asked of us isn't to reach self-fufilment, but rather that we Channel all we are given to those around us. Our measure is in service, not in volume.
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"”
John 7:37-38 ESV
It's hard for us to let life pass through us, by our very nature we are builders and even hoarders. We gather and store grain, knowledge, and even our spiritual gifts; and yet God expects us to redistribute them... not hold them for ourselves. His plan isn't to grow grapes, but to make wine. I was reading Oswald Chambers today and loved this very similar idea...
"It is not that God makes us beautifully rounded grapes, but that He squeezes the sweetness out of us. Spiritually, we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us, and we cannot measure that at all." - Oswald Chambers
There are certain movies that I can watch over and over, one of them is "Mr. Holland's Opus." In this movie Mr. Holland (a would be composer) believes that he will one day write a musical masterpiece, but takes a job as a high school music teacher as he struggles to write the music that will make him famous. In the process he falls in love with the students he is teaching... years upon years of them, and in his advanced age he realizes that his Opus will never be written. He has given himself to others, and his treasure isn't about what was in, and for, himself, but what flowed through him into those he inspired to love music. Mr. Holland found a truth in life that we should realize in faith... it isn't what we gather, or the glory we bring to ourselves; it is what flows out of us and the glory of that belongs to God. That music is our greatest gift to Him.
Jesus was the perfect example of a conduit for God's will, and His kingship exemplified that of a Lord who loved those who came to Him far more than He loved Himself. Paul compared Him to the rock that followed the people Moses lead through the desert... out of Him flowed water.
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
1 Corinthians 10:1-4 ESV
When women went to the well each day they brought jars which they filled with water, then they carried them home where that water was distributed and used for many purposes in sustaining their families. It would have done no good if they had capped those jars and hoarded them in a storeroom, but as the water was poured from the jars it quenched the thirst of many, and washed the hands and feet of family and strangers alike. It never remained in the jar for long, and each day the women returned to the well... and the water flowed through their efforts and from their jars. This is God's desire for us.
What are we doing with our gifts? What are we doing with the blessings that God bestows on us?
I know a man in my church, and he is my spiritual mentor. There is no such formal position, but I look upon him in that way. He is humble in spirit and would trivialize his impact on me and others, but the water of faith that flows through him quenches the thirst of many many people. He is intellectually brilliant and yet, like Mr. Holland, never wrote his Opus. But, what flows through him has defined him. The souls He has brought to salvation, the prayers for healing, the teaching of the gospel, the selfless service to the church and so much more spiritual water... this defines his life, and Glorifies God. My senses are thrilled to the point of being overwhelmed by the music of Bach, but I never knew him. My understanding of scripture has been increased by C.H. Spurgeon, but he never consoled me in my grief and sorrow. This man, my mentor, has something that the great musicians and theologians don't... he has the love of many through the delivery of Christ's message of redemption and love, and not a single possession earned by his efforts. He is an aqueduct that carries God to those who need Him most, yet unlike the great Roman Aqueducts, that stand out in the landscape, he travels life nearly invisible.
Do you know someone like that? How about you? Are you delivering the gifts, the blessings, the Gospel, without concern for gathering it behind lock and key in your personal storehouse? How will you be remembered? Will it be for what you once were and the riches you amassed, or by those who look at their own lives of faith and see your mark there as they pass that selfsame water through themselves to others?
I end my thoughts this morning... or perhaps I begin them, as I begin my day... with this thought by Oswald Chambers:
"Our Lord's teaching is always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a man; His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what He pours through us that counts." - Oswald Chambers
Prayer:
Father I thank you for all the saints that pour Jesus Christ through themselves. I thank you for all those who give no thought to the fact that once they have expended themselves in their efforts that they might end up in chards like a worn out earthen vessel. Then Father, I praise you for seeing the worth in them and raising their bodies from the dust and clay to serve and praise you for all eternity in glory. Help me Holy Father to be pleasing to you without concern for myself. Help me to carry living water from the side of Jesus to all those who thirst. Make me a working vessel that the potter made for utility and use; don't allow me to become painted, beautiful, and placed upon a shelf with no use other than for the looking. Father, don't make me the monument that demands admiration and awe, but rather the grass that cools the feet of those who stand to admire it... admire you. Let me be the simple cup that holds the water that refreshes the saints, and I will praise you day and night for having touched, but for an instant, that which passed through me.
Rich Forbes